Millennium federalism
Date
2002
Authors
Vaive, Justin Robert
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Abstract
In 1998, the federal Liberal Government ushered in the post-deficit era with the first balanced budget in a generation. With good prospects for continued surpluses for the foreseeable future, it is important to determine if the federal government will launch a campaign to intercede in exclusive provincial jurisdictions. The institutions of federalism, and its renewed spending power suggest it will. In hoped by provinces that the 1999 Social Union Framework Agreement (SUF A) would limit the federal government's ability to unilaterally use its spending power, however, SUFA preserved the spending power's legitimacy with only cosmetic restrictions. The establishment of the Millennium Scholarship Foundation serves as a template of how the federal government will uses its spending power to influence policy fields in exclusive provincial jurisdictions. It becomes evident that the federal government is not shy to use its spending power unilaterally by bypassing provinces, and establishing organizations and foundations administer new federal initiatives. This provides the federal government with maximum visibility, with a limited and short-term financial commitment.